On 13 January, more than 10,000 people fired up Elite Dangerous, charged their ship鈥檚 faster-than-light drive and set off on the first hyperspace jump on an epic eight-month journey to the outer edges of the Milky Way.
The 200,000 light-year voyage to Beagle Point, one of the galaxy鈥檚 most distant star systems, will take the giant fleet across vast regions of uncharted space, including the Boreas Expanse, the Galactic Aphelion and the Abyss. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a challenge in both endurance and navigation,鈥� says Erimus Kamzel, one of the mission鈥檚 leaders.
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Wake up 鈥� in a game
Don鈥檛 worry, you haven鈥檛 slept through 1300 years: set in the early 3300s, Elite Dangerous is a video game, which drops players into the cockpit of a spaceship and lets them loose in a 1:1 simulation of the Milky Way, generated according to our latest understanding of star and planet formation. The players organise ambitious missions: they are calling this one Distant World 2 because it retraces the steps of an earlier mission, Distant Worlds, three years ago.
There are 400 billion solar systems 鈥� each with their own planets, moons and asteroids 鈥� and such mind-boggling stretches of nothing between them it would take around 40,000 years to see them all. Since the game鈥檚 release in December 2014, roughly 160 million systems have been visited by at least one player. But that barely scratches the surface: 鈥淭here is an unfathomable amount out there,鈥� says Qohen Leth, another of the mission鈥檚 organisers.
That earlier Distant Worlds expedition to Beagle Point was largely a sightseeing tour: an upgrade to Elite Dangerous now lets players learn about the astronomical objects they encounter in much more detail, including their spectral class, mass and luminosity.
Science in the sim
This means much of the time during the months-long journey will be spent doing science. While the simulation is extremely accurate, any 鈥渄iscoveries鈥� will be limited to revealing genuine things about the simulated galaxy. Everything in the Elite galaxy has been conjured from first principles: stars and planets begin as clouds of matter that slowly aggregate into different solid forms according to their chemical composition, angular momentum and gravitational pull.
鈥淚 would be surprised if more than about 5 per cent of the stars on the route we鈥檙e taking have ever been visited,鈥� says the organiser of the scientific side of the mission, who goes by the name of Satsuma. 鈥淭he game is too big for anyone to know what鈥檚 contained within it 鈥� even the developers.鈥�
Searching for heavy elements
Satsuma is particularly interested in the metallicity of stars 鈥� a measure of how many heavy elements they contain. In the real Milky Way, astronomers have spotted a correlation between the metallicity of a star and the number of gas giants orbiting it. Using statistical analyses carried out during the voyage, Satsuma hopes to discover how the simulated galaxy compares to the real one.
Scanning systems on the way will also allow mining ships to gather material needed to build a space station near Sagittarius A*, the real black hole at the centre of the galaxy, when the fleet arrives there in March. This remote outpost will provide a waypoint for future travellers.
A lot of what the mission discovers will make its way back to players not on the mission. 鈥淲e make ourselves available to answer questions about the things we find and write articles for a newsletter,鈥� says Satsuma. 鈥淚 know many people who became interested in astronomy after playing this game.鈥�
There will be aliens
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But strange stars and black holes are not the only things the mission is preparing itself for. The game is already known to contain two alien races: the Thargoids and the Guardians. Given the amount of unexplored space, there are likely to be others. 鈥淎nything could be out there,鈥� says a player known only as Dr Kaii, who leads the expedition with Kamzel, 鈥渘ew civilizations, unimaginable alien life, crazy stellar bodies breaking the laws of science as we know them鈥�.
Will the thrill of discovery be enough to keep players interested? One of the biggest challenges is keeping people at their computers for several hours a week during a journey that includes long stretches of empty space. Luckily players can will be able to distract themselves by chatting to one another or listening to an in-game radio station 鈥� just as well, given around half the players dropped out of the first Distant Worlds mission.
鈥淭he biggest risk is the pilot losing concentration,鈥� says Valen Zendaris, another organiser. Players could crash their ships or stray into dangerous environments. Already, some 30 players are out of the mission after their ships .听There is some safety in numbers, though, with players relying on the fleet not only for refuelling and repairs but for motivation. 鈥淭he most dangerous thing to run out of is sanity and that鈥檚 why we鈥檙e going out there as a community where we can buoy each other up,鈥� says Olivia Vespera, who is responsible for mission supplies.
鈥淏ut the truth is, none of us know what we will face,鈥� says Zendaris. It could be hostile natural anomalies, alien archaeological sites harbouring dangerous technology, or a giant living organism. 鈥淲hat will happen if we find it? How will we act? How will it react? We will never know until we go out there and discover it.鈥�
: Distant Worlds 2 by , is available on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One
Douglas Heaven is a technology writer based in London
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